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(from Animation Magazine , Feb. '95 issue, pages 26-29, 31)
The commercial television version of Carmen Sandiego , the lady in the stylish red hat and shoes who steals national treasures such as all the sushi in Japan, is surprisingly, the most successful program ever produced by DIC Entertainment. Maybe not so surprising since with more than 4 million units sold since 1985 of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego," currently out in a junior version on CD-ROM, is computer software's best-selling history and geography title ever.
Carmen is the first software character to ever make the leap to television. In addition to the DIC produced Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? educational / entertainment series for Fox, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, a game show, is in its fourth season on PBS.
It was four years from the time Andy Heyward, president and C.E.O. of DIC, spotted "Carmen" as a computer game designed by Broderbund Software to provide young people with exposure to world geography and cultures before it ever got on commericial television.
Heyward read a story about "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" in the business section of the Los Angeles Times . He went to the Northern California community of Novato, where Broderbund Software is based, and met with company officials. He said at the time, "I would like to option the property," and then took it over to CBS.
DIC had the property in the development at CBS for three consecutive years. It was still in the running when Margaret Loesch, president of Fox Children's Network at the Big Boy restaurant in Burbank.
"CBS developed it and at the final bell decided that educational programming was too risky," Heyward recalls.
At a NATPE in the early 90's, Barbara Kriesman, the FCC attorney in charge of the Video Services Division, was the main speaker at a children's seminar. The seminar was focused on compliance with the recently enacted Children's Television Act requiring broadcasters to air programming that meets the educational and informational needs of children. Stations were told, in effect they would lose their licenses if they did not comply.
It was clear that Fox had to protect itself. Margaret Loesch is a very competitive person. She was ready to take a chance.
Heyward told her of DIC's developing Carmen Sandiego with CBS. She asked if it was picked up yet and he said, "No, it wasn't."
Loesch said said Fox would pick up the series if it could have an exclusive.
According to Heyward, Loesch made "a big pitch" on why Fox would be a more competitive environment for Carmen Sandiego . Heyward listened and agreed, finally saying, "OK, let's go." The show made its debut on Fox's Saturday morning line-up from 11:30 to noon [February of 1995] as Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? .
By Heyward's evaluation, Carmen has been more successful than any "educational" show ever, especially because "kids don't think of it as an educational show."
That it be highly entertaining was DIC's hope and aspiration from the start.
"We work very hard to get a lot of stuff in there that kids learn from," Heyward says. "The production has not only cel animation but computer graphics, source footage, and live action."
Heyward confirms that " Carmen Sandiego is far and away the most successful program we've ever produced."
For Robby London, senior vice president, creative affairs at DIC, Carmen Sandiego is the company's "flagship" program and one of his "favorite, favorite topics to talk about."
While London admits that everybody says that some show or another is "unique," that label is totally valid for Carmen .
Some of the things that makes Carmen unique are the many disparate production elements not often seen on Saturday morning television.
Carmen includes regular cel animation to carry the narrative forward. Silcon Graphics Inc.'s computer animation take characters from place to place throughout the world allowing viewers to learn about the places. Within the SGI platform, still photos are used, such as source footage of Franklin Delano Roosevelt making a speech, among all sorts of visuals including graphs.
Another component is "limited animation," which is quick, little, perhaps 5-second, images that is in a completely different style from regular cel animation. Live action appears throughout the episode in terms of the players playing at home on the computer against Carmen Sandiego. This is the whole basis by which DIC tells the story.
Micheal Maliani was executive producer and producer of Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? the first season of the show. [Once the show reached] the third season, Joe Barruso, who previously directed the show, is now producer.
Maliani, who was in at the earliest stages of development, remembers that "What we were trying to do was make something entertaining and educational. We wanted to be different. We really wanted to make it interesting to watch. That's why we wanted to have so many elements."
Kids like variety, Maliani contends. With that in mind, DIC decided to Carmen with different media, including standard cel animation, the Monty Pyton-style limited animation, other computer graphics and some live-action added in. "We thought we could show the educational stuff without being boring," Maliani explains. "We didn't want the show to be a lecture. We wanted to weave the education into the plot."
Like the computer game, the DIC series is full of visual and spoken clues about the mysterious Carmen Sandiego, her cunning cat Carmine, and her gang of goof-ball thieves stealing such ambitious treasures as the roof off of the Taj Mahal to statues from Easter Island. Viewers (players in the computer game) get help in trying to stop Carmen and her "henchmen" from the ACME Detective Agency. The DIC series (and now "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" Junior Detective Edition on CD-ROM as well) features the young characters Zack and Ivy who report to The Chief. The plot of each episode (and the objective of the computer game) is to follow the geography-based clues and "bag the bad guys, recover the stolen loot and put Carmen Sandiego and Carmine in the clink."
[Note- Carmine was never in the series, just in the Jr. Detective Edition CD-ROM.]
Along the way, viewers learn such facts as the height of Mt. Everest and that the Sphinx in Egypt has the body of a lion and the breast of a man.
"We knew we were going to fit right in the 6 to 11 age demographic," explains Maliani, "but we wanted to make Carmen a little more sophisticated so we could get the older kids."
A major difference between Carmen the computer game and the commericial TV series is in visualizing the capers. The computer game offers a premise that the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal is stolen. DIC's production team had to estimate the weight of the roof of the Taj Mahal and then figure out what it would take to lift it.
DIC's researchers established that four Russian helicopters could hoist the estimated weight of the Taj Mahal roof.
The next problem was how to accomplish the feat. DIC's solution? Use a lasar to cut off the roof. Add hooks to it and lift it off.
"We had to figure this stuff out," Maliani notes. "It's kind of fake but almost real."
London explains that many shows on Saturday morning through the years have had a degree of pro-social values. One of the things that is different about Carmen from all these other shows, according to London, is that Fox and DIC took the "conservative high road" that pro-social is not sufficient to fulfill the mandate of the Children's Televison Act.
" Carmen can't just show good moral values and teach little lessons in living," he points out. "It must have a measurable curriculum that actually teaches information, not just lessons in living."
Among the consultants on Carmen are Dr. Peter Kovaric, a professor at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education, who is also director of the school's educational technology unit. Kovaric is an acknowledged expert on using technology, such as televsion, to teach kids.
He reviews all Carmen scripts and helps DIC's production team conceptualize show. "It's an exemplary relationship," affirms Kovaric.
"One of the very good things about Carmen is that it is a commericial venture and is resonably successful. That may help lower the reluctance of broadcasters to try something new and different," he observes.
DIC also employs Barbara Wong, a teacher and principal of Baldwin Middle School in the Alhambra (Calif.) school district. Wong credits the DIC production team with being "very concerned" about having quality programming for kids. "They're very in tune with people like myself and very open."
Carmen, she points out, "has a lot of elements in it that readily apply to a teaching situation."
Wong explains that while Carmen is not a "surrogate teacher," the show does qualify as "a nice addendum - a nice resource to have."
Wong gets credit as Curriculum Consultant. Kovaric is Educational Consultant.
According to London, Carmen, in addition to gaining an educational seal of approval, wins its time period. In the Sept. 1993 to July 1994 Nielsen data, Fox's Saturday morning line-up which includes The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers , X-Men, Bobby's World, Tiny Toons, Taz-Mania, Eek the Cat and Carmen demonstrates the last is one of the top shows not only with kids two to 11 but with persons six to 17.
It averaged a 6.0 rating with kids two to 11 and a 5.1 with the older demo suggesting that as an educational program it's holding its own handily against traditional animated entertainment, including action/adventure.
Another measure of Carmen's appeal is that in that same Nielsen measured time-span "the lady in the red hat" has more viewers than Beekman's World and Bill Nye combined- not only with kids two to 11 but with persons two and over.
"It's by no means a loss leader," emphasizes London. "It's not even number one by default. It really holds up Fox's ratings."
Maliani, who is senior vice president in charge of development, knows he risks sounding hokey but points out that in his 10 years with DIC he has wanted to try "to make a difference." In Carmen Sandiego , he says, "we have a property where you could actually learn."
In large measure, Maliani speaks for everyone connected with the Carmen Sandiego property when he comments: "This is the one show that really meant a lot to me and I gave it my all. I gave it everything I had and everything I could think of creatively. I wanted it to be special."
Reprinted without permission
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